Russian Assessments and Applications of the Correlation of Forces and Means

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reach, Clint

Contributor:

Cozad, Mark

Kilambi, Vikram

Language:

English

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. RAND Corporation 2020

Summary:

During the Cold War, the United States and its allies sought to understand virtually every aspect of the Soviet military — including how it defined and assessed the correlations of forces and means (COFM). COFM is defined as the military balance between two opponents at the global, regional, and local levels. The international environment and new security threats that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union shifted the United States' focus away from the large-scale military problems prevalent during the Cold War to different concerns, such as terrorism, regional ethnic conflict, and nuclear proliferation. As U.S. security concerns evolved, in-depth analysis of COFM and other issues related to understanding military balance and competition between major powers received relatively little attention from military planners and analysts. To bridge the gap in knowledge that emerged after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the authors of this report examine COFM's evolution in Russian military thinking and explore current definitions and applications in Russia's operational and military planning in response to changes in modern warfare. They also briefly describe other Russian comparisons of state power that historically were a part of Soviet strategic assessments of COFM.